The Ogun State Police Command on Monday said said it has launched a manhunt for the killers of a 17-year old secondary school student in the state, Habeebah Akinsanya, who was kidnapped on Friday and subsequently killed by her abductors in the early hours of Sunday.
The Police also clarified that the father of the slain girl, Mr Akinsanya Aremu only paid N30,000 to the abductors of his daughter and not N1m as he initially said.
The Police said a resident of the community said they saw the late Habeebah while entering the farm with one of the farm workers working for the victim’s father, where her corpse was eventually found.
Akinsanya, an officer with Ogun State government owned security outfit, ‘So Safe Corps’, was said to have paid the money into a Moniepoint account provided by the kidnappers so as to facilitate the tracking and arrest of those behind the kidnapping of her daughter.
The Divisional Police Officer of Kemta Division, Abeokuta, CSP Olawale Famobuwa disclosed this after being granted approval by the State Commissioner of Police, Abiodun Alamutu to speak on the sad incident.
Famobuwa said “the father of the deceased reported to the police station on Friday at about 9:30pm that her daughter, Habeebah who was helping her sister with the Point of Sale business has not been found.
“He said that the sister travelled and asked Habeebah to stand in for her but that someone invited her (the deceased) for a transaction and that she had since been missing. It was incidented as a case of missing person.
“He later came back again on Saturday and said that some people have contacted the sister who owned the PoS business and were demanding for money, so he sent N30,000 into the Moniepoint account which we hope to use to track the receiver and then get to arrest those behind the criminal act.
“So what was paid was N30,000 and not N1m. I have the receipt and this is to help facilitate the tracking of those behind the criminal act.
“And we actually did the tracking to somewhere in Oke Egunya community, which is under Ibara Division, Abeokuta. We were there till 1am early Sunday morning until we went to rest a bit before continuing with the tracking.
“We were later informed on Sunday that the corpse of the young girl had been found at his father farm in Mile 6 and when we got there, we discovered that the girl was raped before she was killed”.
Famobuwa explained further that a resident of the community allegedly said she saw a farm worker working for the father of the victim entering into the bush with the deceased but did not return with her and that when he was challenged, he said the girl was still busy in the farm and that she would join him later.
The police also said a 15-year old boy equally allegedly explained how he saw this farm worker with firewood on his head running so suspiciously as someone making haste to escape from a crime scene.
Famobuwa regretted that it was painful that the father of the deceased, a senior officer in the So Safe security agency established by the state government could have the vital information volunteered by the residents of the community yet he refused to release such to the police.
He said the farm worker who is said to have taken to his heels is a prime suspect but that the police will do everything possible under the law to make all the assailants involved in the criminal acts to pay for their misdeeds.
Habeebah, a student of Lisabi Grammar School, Abeokuta is said to be going into SS3 when the new school session begin on September 16 and would have turned 17 in October. (Vanguard)